Report No. 103

2.5. The Rajasthan High Court1 has held: "Wherever, on the face of the goods ticket, words to the effect 'For conditions see the back' are printed, the person concerned is as a matter of law, held to be bound by the conditions subject to which the ticket is issued, whether he takes care to read the conditions if printed on the back or to ascertain them if it is stated on the back of the ticket where they are to be found. Where, on the other hand, the words printed on the face of the ticket do not indicate that the ticket is issued subject to certain conditions but there are merely words to the effect 'see back' then it is a question of fact whether or not the carrier did that, which was reasonably sufficient to give notice of the conditions to the person concerned.

If, however, the conditions are printed on the back of the ticket but there are no words at all on the face of it to draw the attention of the person concerned to them, then it has been held that he is not bound by the conditions. In the present case, on the face of the ticket, there was a declaration to the effect that the consignor was fully aware of and accepted the conditions of carriage given on the back of the consignment receipt. Any prudent consignor would read the ticket to see that his goods and the transport charges payable were correctly entered in it, and in doing so, he would read the above declaration, or if did not know English, he would have the ticket read by someone else knowing English, who would come to know that it was subject to the conditions printed on the back. The man must be taken to know that, which he has the means of knowing, whether he has availed himself of all these means or not. If he does not, he must bear the consequences of his carelessness."

1. Sinahal Transport v. Jasaram, AIR 1968 Raj 89.